A big cat in Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) is set to recreate history. It made news when its tail was bit by a rabid dog about four months ago. Now, it has moved out of the reserve and going towards Bandhavgarh tiger reserve.
In the process it is re-tracing a lost tiger corridor that had once connected the two tiger reserves decades ago. The movement of the tiger is being monitored closely by the forest officials.
The three-year-old tiger —P 212 — had left Panna reserve about a fortnight ago. It is heading towards Bandhavgarh tiger reserve through the thin corridor around the Ken river whose banks have now been encroached by villages and witness human activities. This 30-km corridor had been destroyed during the last 60 years.
“We are not going to push it back. This is going to be a history. The tiger’s movement is being tracked, through radio collars and the villagers are also being informed of the exact location of the tiger from time to time,” said Field Director PTR, R Srinivas Murthy. According to him, in the given pace and situation, the tiger could take about a month to complete the whole journey to Bandhavgarh. The park authorities are neither guiding the tiger, nor interfering with its natural movements.
Forest officials are tracking the tiger on elephants. This is for this first time that the park management has allowed the tiger to move without recapturing it. Wildlife activists are, however, worried over the possibilities of man-animal conflicts during the passage of tiger through human dominated areas besides the threats of its poaching.
The tiger was born to a translocated tigress in its first litter in October 2010. It was twice in news last year. First it was in April, when it was operated upon in a two hour long surgery following tranquilisation. It was the first instance of an animal having been administered tissue adhesive, used by surgeons on humans for quick healing.
The second time was when its tail was bitten by a dog in September. It was tranquilised and given full course of anti-rabies shots that are given to humans. The big cats once prowled freely in the Panna-Bandhavgarh corridor, but a large swathe of them has now been lost due to fragmented habitat, agriculture and development.
TIGER BY THE TAIl
It made news when its tail was bit by a rabid dog about four months ago. Now, it has moved out of the reserve and going towards Bandhavgarh tiger reserve
In the process it is re-tracing a lost tiger corridor that had once connected the two tiger reserves decades ago. The movement of the tiger is being monitored closely by the forest officials
The three-year-old tiger had left Panna reserve about a fortnight ago. It is heading towards Bandhavgarh tiger reserve through the thin corridor around the Ken river
The tiger was born to a translocated tigress in its first litter in October 2010. It was twice in news last year. First it was in April, when it was operated upon in a two hour long surgery following tranquilisation. It was the first instance of an animal having been administered tissue adhesive, used by surgeons on humans for quick healing